


Yellow Belly

by PuppetMaster55



Series: Black and Blue and Blue and Black [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Paladin Lance (Voltron), Hunk loves How It's Made, Multi, Pidge and Hunk should never plan together, set during belly of the weblum, the platonic ot3 we need in our lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 07:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10826478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppetMaster55/pseuds/PuppetMaster55
Summary: Hunk worries over the state of his boyfriend as the plan to defeat Zarkon starts to come together.Set during chapter 16 of Black to Blue.





	Yellow Belly

Hunk moved to sit beside Pidge, sit in the shadow of the cryopod holding Keith, and twitched his fingers. He was worried, and wanted nothing more than to take something apart and rebuild it. Or bake an upside-down pudding cake. Just something to clear his mind, get it off the worry of Keith's well-being, his boyfriend's well-being.

Keith, who was injured, who had been in a ton of pain and who had been fighting the entire time, Hunk didn't know where to start. It was clear, from how the shoulder injury had looked – and Hunk _had_ looked, couldn't _not_ look, not when it was his boyfriend, _bleeding in his arms_ – that Keith had gotten it early in the fighting. It looked awful, and Hunk would bet his bottom dollar that it felt just as awful, but still Keith had fought.

“Hunk, stop that.” Pidge reached out, poking Hunk square in the belly without so much as looking away from the lines of code they were typing. “You're thinking too loud, I can't code.”

“I happen to be thinking just the right amount, Pidge,” Hunk replied, fiddling his hands together. “He's _hurt_.”

“I know.”

“He was in pain.”

“I _know_.” Pidge paused typing, shifting to lean against Hunk. “But he's healing now. We've only got a few vargas until he's healed up and then our boyfriend is going to explain _exactly_ what he did to get those injuries.” Pidge glared at the lines of code. “And he's going to explain _exactly_ why he did it.”

“I just – he's Galra.” Hunk slipped his hands into the packs at his sides, pulling out a pocket set of tools and a little servo joint he'd snuck from behind a panel in his room. The tools deftly worked to take the servo apart, letting Hunk see every little part that it was made of. “He's Galra and he just found out and he didn't tell us.”

“And if he didn't come back so injured, I'd say he should sleep on the floor for it,” Pidge replied. “But he did and now we've got to be supportive.”

Hunk nodded, setting aside each of the little gears. “We're hugging him when he comes out.”

“We're totally hugging the quiznack out of him when he gets out,” Pidge agreed, returning to coding the virus. “Keith's too reckless for his own good, and he needs to know that we still like him.” They paused. “Hey, on a scale of awesome to genius, what if I code it so that a song plays over Zarkon's internal channels while the power shuts down?”

Hunk paused. “That is a terrible idea. What's the song?”

“I was thinking some kind of meme. Like, What if I went for an old classic. Sabotage.”

Hunk hummed. “The... the Beastie Boys song?” Hunk nodded, thoughtful. “It's got irony points, I like it.”

“Excellent!” Pidge cackled, returning to typing. “I considered doing a classic rickroll but it just didn't feel like _enough_.”

“True, true.” Hunk smiled, beginning to put the servo joint back together. “Buuuuuut, consider that the Galra probably don't know that a rickroll is a joke?”

Pidge paused. “You mean make the entire Galra empire believe that a rickroll is a mighty Earth war song?”

“I'm not saying that,” Hunk mildly answered. “But I am saying that you should consider all possibilities before going with the straightforward one. Like, what if we played a victory song? Or something ironic, like–”

“Joan Jett,” Pidge breathed. They looked at Hunk. “We need a playlist. We could make a playlist!”

“Yeah!” Hunk fist-pumped, before pausing, his elation fading away. “Aw, quiznack. But we don't have our music with us.”

“You forget, my soft Hunk of a boyfriend, that I am a genius at coding.” Pidge grinned, their glasses glinting ominously. “I can 8-bit code any song I want.”

“ _Any_ song?” Hunk shared in Pidge's grin, the glint in his eyes promising every bit of devious he could bring out.

Pidge's smile widened. “What did you have in mind?”

* * *

Keith stumbled out of the cryopod and into Hunk's waiting arms.

“Hold on there, Skywalker,” Pidge said, reaching up to steady Keith.

“Yeah, I've got a big bowl of food goo waiting in the kitchen with your name on it,” Lance added. “I think it tastes like french toast, which, I have to ask _how_ you did that beauty, Hunk.”

“With this little nectarine-looking thing we picked up from that planet we stranded Rolo and Nyma on,” Hunk replied. “Their lies were awful but we found some pretty good fruit bounty there, so.” Hunk shrugged. “Also, not the time. Galra Keith needs to get back on his feet.”

“And food goo definitely helps,” Lance replied. “I've been in the cryopod like, three times now.” Lance paused. “Wow, that's... that's a lot. Why am _I_ the one that keeps getting hurt?”

“Maybe the universe just doesn't like you,” Keith dryly replied. “What did you tell them?”

“Okay, first up, he barely told us anything,” Pidge growled. “Second, you need to answer for whatever stupid caused you to fight the entire base.”

“They wanted my knife!” Keith protested, shifting in Hunk's grip to glare at Pidge. The glare vanished as soon as the words sank in, and Keith glanced around frantically. “Where's my knife?”

“Magic knife is with me, Keith,” Pidge replied, patting their hip, where Keith's knife hung. “But you need to explain. Why did you need to fight everyone?”

“Because they weren't going to let me keep my blade otherwise,” Keith replied, swaying in place.

“Alright, let's move this show up into the kitchen. Keith's starving, I know he is, and he needs food in him before we go out on this bundle of dangerous missions.” Lance gestured for everyone to move, and Hunk scooped up Keith into his arms and led the way into the kitchen. Hunk set Keith down on the chair at the end of the table while Pidge got the bowl of food goo, shooing off the space mice.

“So can we explain what's happening now?” Hunk asked.

“Quite right!” Coran nodded, pulling up a hologram over the table. “I've been discussing with Allura, and we've agreed that these missions will all take place at the same time.”

“Why?” Hunk asked, looking from Lance to Allura for an explanation. “Why can't we do these dangerous missions as a complete team? Because you keep calling them dangerous, and that's–”

“That's not inspiring confidence in the success?” Shiro finished, raising his eyebrows expectantly. Hunk nodded, while Keith dug in. Kolivan stepped into the room, accompanied by Allura.

“Disressing news has come,” Kolivan began. “Slav has been taken in by the empire. We've managed to get the location of his prison, Beta Traz, but little else. What we do know for sure is that he's the only prisoner there.”

“Will he talk?” Lance asked, looking sharply at Kolivan. “About us or the Blade?”

“No.” Kolivan shook his head. “He will not. I also brought the plans for us to go over. It is best that you know which parts of high command to attack.”

“It will have to wait,” Allura said. “Paladins, we will have to divide our forces to accomplish this. In one varga, I will be opening several wormholes. Coran will be taking a podship to Olkarion, where he will begin the work on building the teludav.”

“Indeed I will!” Coran added. “And I'll need scaultrite for that, we don't have nearly enough for a teludav of the size we're building.”

Hunk felt a pit of dread replace his stomach.

“Oh no,” he breathed.

“Hunk!”

“Oh quiznack,” Hunk muttered.

“Because you were so useful in gathering the Balmera crystal for the Castle, Coran has suggested that you and the Yellow Lion take the lead in harvesting scaultrite from the nearest weblum.”

“Joy,” Hunk flatly cheered. “I feel so honored, so blessed.”

Lance made a face, like he was trying to understand why Hunk was acting so unenthusiastic.

“Keith will accompany you,” Allura added. “While Lance, Pidge, and Shiro take the Blue Lion and infiltrate this Beta Traz to rescue Slav.” She made a small grimace. “Under ordinary circumstances, I would not advise this splitting up, but given the nature of Slav's capture and the swiftness we will need when ambushing Zarkon, this must be done.”

“I would send my own people, but any incoming Galra would be cataloged and that would be too dangerous, even by our standards. The Blade does not act without certainty of success.” Kolivan looked over them all. “It is imperative that Slav return with you. The Empire must not learn of his gravity engine, or make use of his genius mind to create weapons for Zarkon.”

“So what about you?” Lance asked. “Why can't you go with Coran to Olkarion?”

“Because I will be returning to the Balmera,” Allura answered. Hunk lit up.

“You're going to see the Balmerans?” Hunk beamed. He liked Shay, saw a kindred spirit in her.

“The teludav will require a crystal,” Allura said. “As will this gravity engine, once it is installed. The Castle's crystal alone cannot power anything like that, not without risk of shattering.” Allura shook her head. “So I will be taking the Castle of Lions and traveling back to the Balmera to ask for a crystal of sufficient size. Once each of you are done, contact the Castle and I will open a wormhole for you to return. Once all of you are back, the Castle will station at Olkarion until the teludav is completed.”

Hunk glanced at Keith, where he was hurriedly eating the food goo. “And we're doing all this today?”

“Of course,” Allura replied. “As soon as Keith is able to move on his own, we will commence.”

“He just came out of the cryopod,” Lance protested. “Are you sure we should be doing this today?”

“I am sure, Lance.” Allura glanced at him. “The longer we wait for this, the greater the chance that something can go wrong. Either in that Slav is moved, or the weblum is attacked, or another robeast appears that we will have to battle. It has to be today, Lance.”

“But–” Lance groaned, deflating as Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. He glanced up at Shiro, nodding appreciatively, his gaze softening as he looked into Shiro's eyes. Hunk resisted the urge to coo at the sappy display of love.

“And the virus?” Kolivan asked. “I will need to return soon to send it to Thace.”

“Here.” Pidge smiled, holding out a datachip. “This is the virus in all it's beautiful, magical glory.”

“Very well.” Kolivan took the datachip. “I will send it to Thace, along with instructions of the plan. He will understand the signal.”

“Which is me,” Lance piped up. “I'm the signal. I'm gonna let Zarkon track Black.”

“What?” Shiro looked at Lance in shock. “Why would you do that? You know what happened the last time!”

“It's necessary, Shiro,” Allura answered for Lance, nodding like she understood what Lance was talking about. “I assume it is necessary, Lance?”

“Me and Black can act as a lure to get Zarkon out to some empty part of the universe.” Lance shrugged. “It's just like fishing, except we're going after Zarkon, and we can't exactly stuff him and mount him on the wall like a trophy.”

Allura made a disgusted face, which Kolivan and Coran shared. Hunk didn't blame them, since it sounded creepy too – Zarkon, the singing Galra; poke his belly and watch him belt out a power ballad.

Hunk shuddered.

* * *

“Sooooooooo,” Hunk began. “You're Galra now.”

“I was always Galra,” Keith defended, stiffening where he leaned over the back of Yellow's seat. “Now I just know it.”

“Yeah, but like, what does it mean?” Hunk turned to look at Keith. “Are you going to turn purple? Do you know the secret Galra handshake now?”

“According to Lance, it means I now have something to put down on hospital forms,” Keith grumbled, but he was warming up, loosening. “Something to finally write for family history.”

“Which parent was the Galra?” Hunk asked. “And does this make your other parent a furry?”

Keith froze, his eyes widening and face going pale. “Oh. Ew. _Ew_. I did not need to think about my dad and my mom – ew! Hunk!”

Hunk laughed. “It's a valid question! Your mom or your dad?”

“My mom was Galra!” Keith groaned. “And I will need brain bleach to get that image out of my mind. I did _not_ need to think about my parents doing– _that_.”

“So,” Hunk began again, as Keith paced the cockpit, pulling at his hair. “You're Galra now?”

Keith paused, and Hunk turned to look at him. “I... yeah? Yeah, I am.”

“Is this why you were so convinced that Zarkon was tracking you?” Hunk asked, hurt on his face. “You left in the middle of the night. We were worried, me and Pidge.”

“I didn't know if he was or not,” Keith replied, his voice quiet. “I don't remember my mom, and I didn't know if I was some kind of sleeper spy or an experiment or something. And then Pidge made the Galra tracker, and it's stupid to think that Zarkon wouldn't have something like that to know where all his Galra are...” Keith shrugged, slumping against the wall, back to Hunk. “It seemed safer to leave than to stay and see you get hurt.”

Hunk set Yellow to autopilot, letting her cruise toward the coordinates of the weblum, and stood. Keith gasped as he was pulled into a hug, Hunk's arms wrapping tightly around him.

“That's stupid,” Hunk replied, ducking around to look at Keith. “You could never hurt us. And if any of us did get hurt, it wasn't because of you.” Hunk smiled. “Me and Pidge, we both care a lot about you, Keith. Some would call it love. Not us, though. We don't have the time.”

Keith snickered. “Too busy to love?” he asked. “That's the real stupid here.”

“Maybe a little love,” Hunk admitted, squeezing Keith. “Soft love.”

“The softest love,” Keith agreed. “You and me and Pidge.”

“The three musketeers,” Hunk hummed. He paused. “We're never telling Lance I said that. He tried to get it to be a thing the first week Pidge was at the Garrison, and we both shot it down hard. He moped for like two days before bouncing back.”

“Agreed.” Keith nodded. He looked up at Hunk, a tentative smile on his face. “When this is over do you wanna hang out in bed, eat some cold food goo like it's ice cream, and watch a bunch of How It's Made?”

Hunk grinned. He thought of the datachip he had back at the Castle, filled with every episode of How It's Made, and nodded. “I think that's an awesome idea, Galra Boyfriend Keith.”

Keith's smile vanished. “I've rethought my mind, we're breaking up.”

“What?” Hunk pouted as Keith pulled out of his hug. Keith darted toward the pilot's seat, laughing. “Is it the Boyfriend part? The Galra part? Keith, what's–”

Yellow beeped in warning, and Hunk barely had time to leap back into the pilot's seat to steer clear of the ruined planet.

“Whoa.” Hunk looked at the remnants of a solar system, planets broken and dead all around them. “What happened here?” Pulling up the map, Hunk frowned. “These are supposed to be alive planets. What happened to them?”

“Nothing natural, that's for sure,” Keith replied, back at his side. He looked at Hunk, smiling. “Let's go get the scaultrite first, and then we can report this back to Allura.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Hunk nodded, thoughtful. “Survive to get the scaultrite, and then we can tell Allura all about the dead solar system we found the...”

Hunk trailed off, looking ahead at the massive worm-like thing swimming through open space.

“Whoa.” Keith stared at it in awe. “ _That's_ a weblum?”

“It's _huge_!” Hunk breathed.

“That's what I said.”

Hunk blinked, looking up at Keith in awe. “Was that – was that a joke? A _dirty_ joke? Does Galra Keith make jokes now?”

“Galra Keith would like it if Human Hunk stopped talking in the third person,” Keith blandly replied, although there was a smile on his face.

“Hey, I'm allowed a bit of shock,” Hunk argued. “Giant worm. Alien boyfriend. Today's had a lot happen.”

“And it's still not over yet,” Keith replied. “Let's go get the scaultrite. Then we can relax. Food goo and How It's Made, remember?”

“It's a date,” Hunk agreed, steering Yellow toward the weblum. “Hey, didn't Coran send us with an instructional video or something?”

* * *

Hunk stared at the retreating Galra, then at Keith.

“What.” He gestured at the Galra's quickly fading silhouette. “ _What_?”

Keith glared at the space the Galra vanished into. “So we got held up for a bag of scaultrite.”

“Dude!” Hunk cried. “Not the problem here. A Galra saw us here! A Galra! Of the evil empire. Remember that? Headed by Zarkon? Under orders to call it in when anyone spots us? And one of them just did!”

“I'm not happy either, but...” Keith shook his head. “I don't think he–”

“She.”

“What?” Keith looked at Hunk, baffled. “What are you talking about?”

“ _That_ was a lady Galra,” Hunk pointed at the now empty space. “At least, I'm pretty sure she was a lady Galra. I got that impression from her.”

“...okay?” Keith shrugged. “I didn't really get anything like that from her. I just got the impression that she was acting on her own or something. I don't think she'll report seeing us to anyone. Not unless she wants to explain why she was out harvesting scaultrite.”

“Yeah, _why_ did mystery Galra woman need scaultrite?” Hunk asked, grabbing the caterpillar chain of scaultrite-filled bags and tugging them along toward Yellow. “I thought they were only good for wormholers.”

“Maybe they've got other uses too.” Keith shrugged. “How would I know.”

“Uh, you're also Galra?” Hunk asked, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“That doesn't mean I automatically know everything that the other Galra do.” Keith groaned, and Hunk laughed.

“I'm kidding!” Hunk reached up to wipe away an imaginary tear from in front of his helmet. “Now let's get going. I don't want to become a shooting star again.”

“Don't you mean _shitting_ star?” Keith corrected, and Hunk paused. He looked at Keith, wide-eyed.

“You swore,” Hunk breathed. “Galra Keith swore!”

“What can I say?” Keith shrugged, a smile on his lips. “I go where the puns take me.” He clicked his heels, flying toward Yellow. “Now let's get back to Yellow, call Allura, and let her know we've got the scaultrite.”

“And then date night!” Hunk cried, following after Keith. “You're not getting out of date night!”

“I wouldn't dream of it!” Keith called back, laughing.

 


End file.
